Some 50 miles north of the city, about 1,000 people were preparing to spend the night away from home. Fire officials said 10 apartments were heavily damaged and 40 others sustained lesser damage. The weather service said the tornado struck with winds of about 100 mph at around 6:30 a.m. Wyatt said some 1,000 homes were damaged in San Marcos, Wimberley and elsewhere in Hays County, a fast-growing area between San Antonio and Austin.Ī tornado briefly touched down in Houston, damaging rooftops, toppling trees, blowing out windows and sending at least two people to a hospital. “I don’t know what the cleanup process is going to be.”įive San Marcos police cars were washed away and a fire station was flooded, said Kristi Wyatt, a spokeswoman for San Marcos, which imposed a 9 p.m. “He told me there was 2 inches of mud,” Mallow said. Tami Mallow, 41, gathered her three cats at a shelter in San Marcos while her husband put furniture on cinderblocks, and retreated to the second floor with electronics and other valuables as the floodwaters entered. New flash flood watches were issued Sunday for western Arkansas, Missouri and parts of Kansas.Ībout 1,000 people were evacuated from homes in Central Texas, where rescuers pulled dozens of people from high water overnight. The storm system was pushing northeast Sunday after moving across parts of Colorado, central and North Texas and most of Oklahoma. By Sunday, the city reached a rainfall record, nearly 14 inches so far in May. Wichita Falls was so dry at one point that that it had to get Texas regulatory approval to recycle and treat its wastewater as drinking water dried up. “It looks like the rainfall that we’re getting now may actually officially end the drought,” that has gripped the southern Plains states for years, Mitchell said, noting that moisture now reaches about two feet below the surface of the soil and many lakes and reservoirs are full. The reasons include a prolonged warming of Pacific Ocean sea surface temperatures, which generally results in cooler air, coupled with an active southern jet stream and plentiful moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, said Meteorologist Forrest Mitchell at National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma. Last year the state’s capital got only 4.29 inches. So far this year, Oklahoma City has recorded 27.37 inches of rain. This May is already the wettest on record for several cities in the southern Plains states, with days still to go and more rain on the way. Salvage what can be salvaged and replace what needs to be replaced,” Ruiz said. “Pick up the pieces and start all over I guess. Heather Ruiz returned from work early Sunday to ankle-deep water and a muddy couch inside her home in San Marcos. The Red and Wichita rivers also rose far above flood stage. Rescuers used pontoon boats and a helicopter to pull people out.ĭallas also faced severe flooding from the Trinity River, which was expected to crest near 40 feet Monday and lap at the foundations of an industrial park. The Blanco crested above 40 feet - more than triple its flood stage of 13 feet - swamping Interstate 35 and forcing parts of the busy north-south highway to close. Rivers rose so fast that whole communities woke up Sunday surrounded by water. Kenneth Bell, the emergency management coordinator in nearby San Marcos, said the damage in Hays County alone amounts to “millions of dollars.”Īuthorities also warned people to honor a night-time curfew and stay away from damaged areas, since more rain was on the way, threatening more floods with the ground saturated and waterways overflowing. “We do have whole streets with maybe one or two houses left on them and the rest are just slabs,” she said.įrom 350 to 400 homes were destroyed in Wimberley, many of them washed away, Smith said. “It looks pretty bad out there,” said Hays County emergency management coordinator Kharley Smith, describing the destruction in Wimberley, a community that is part of a fast-growing corridor between Austin and San Antonio. And the body of a man was recovered from a flooded area along the Blanco River, which rose 26 feet in just one hour and left piles of wreckage 20 feet high, authorities in Texas said. A firefighter in Oklahoma was swept to his death while trying to rescue 10 people in high water. Tornadoes struck, severely damaging an apartment complex in Houston, Texas. SAN MARCOS, Texas (AP) - Record rainfall was wreaking havoc across a swath of Texas and the Midwest on Sunday, causing flash floods in normally dry riverbeds, spawning tornadoes and forcing at least 2,000 people to flee.
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